Why Tiers Beat Rankings on Draft Day

Every year, you’ll hear fantasy managers talking about “tiers.” Podcasts bring them up constantly. Articles plaster them all over the place. Most rankings, including my own, have them posted as well. But while tiers have become a fantasy buzzword, many people still don’t fully understand how to use them to win drafts.

This isn’t just a “know what tiers are” guide. This is about taking tiers and weaponizing them on draft day, to make smarter picks, control the draft flow, and force your opponents into uncomfortable decisions.

What Exactly is a Tier?

A tier is simply a group of players with roughly interchangeable value. They’re not an exact ranking, but more of a value cluster.

Example: In my rankings right now, I have Bijan Robinson as RB1, Saquon Barkley as RB2, Christian McCaffrey as RB3, and Jahmyr Gibbs as RB4. They are all in Tier 1, thus I could understand taking any of the four RBs as the RB1. I could see any expert ranking those four in any order, even if I disagree with it. They’re all in the same tier, meaning experts view them interchangeably on draft day.

But De’Von Achane? He starts Tier 2, a clear and distinct step down in value.

This is why tiers beat plain rankings: they show you where the major value drop-offs happen.

How to Use Tiers (When It’s OK to Reach)

Tiers also permit you to “reach", as long as you stay within the same tier.

I have a clear group of four for my QB1 tier in my consensus rankings. I see Josh Allen as QB1, but if you want to draft Jayden Daniels as the first QB, even though he’s my QB4, you can do it without it being a bad reach. If you feel confident, you can wait and still get him. I’d advise doing that. But if you want to make sure you get him, it’s not a reach to take him over the other guys in Tier 1.

On the other hand, taking Joe Burrow (Tier 2) ahead of Jayden Daniels would be crossing the value gap, and that’s where mistakes happen.

This principle holds throughout the draft but becomes even more critical as the draft progresses. I’ve talked in other articles about feeling confident taking players earlier than your draft room’s default rankings suggest. It might feel awkward, but tiers expand as the draft goes on. If you have to scroll down to find the player you want, as long as they’re in your top tier left, it’s fine. Don’t feel like it’s a reach, even if it’s way ahead of consensus.

Early on, it’s easier to compare players directly. But in the bottom tiers, players are more uncertain and have wider ranges of outcomes, so reaching much further is perfectly fine.

Draft from the Bottom of Tiers

Another tip to extract value, and one of the most powerful draft hacks, is to target the bottom of a tier at each position.

Example: You’re in the middle part of your draft, feeling good about your RBs and WRs, and you’re deciding between taking a TE or a QB. If there’s one QB left in Tier 3, let’s say Baker Mayfield, and there are multiple TEs left in your Tier 3 with the best being Travis Kelce, it makes more sense to take Baker.

Why? If you take Kelce, there’s a chance Baker gets drafted, and you’ll have to settle for a lower-tier QB. But if you take Baker, even if Kelce goes, you’ll still have other Tier 3 TEs available.

Scenario: Breaking a Draft Run Like a Pro

It’s late in Round 5, early in Round 6. A feeding frenzy just hit, 9 RBs went in 11 picks. You look at your sheet: two RBs left in the current tier… but there’s also one WR left in the higher tier.

Here’s where most managers panic and chase the RB run. You? You break the run. You take the elite WR that fell only because people scrambled for backs.

What happens next? Maybe a mini-WR run starts before it gets back to you, and guess what? That RB you wanted might still be there. You’ve just flipped the flow of the draft.

Instead of reacting, you’re dictating.

The TE Example — Avoiding Dead Zones

Tiers also keep you out of positional traps. Take tight end this year: Brock Bowers and Trey McBride are Tier 1 studs going early. The next tier? Big drop-off.

If you’re in Rounds 4–5 and the elite guys are gone, tiers tell you to keep hammering RB/WR value instead of reaching for a middling TE just to “fill the spot.” It’s the difference between building strength and wasting a pick in a dead zone.

Using Tiers in Trades

Tiers aren’t just for your own picks; they’re deadly in draft pick trades, which have become increasingly popular over the years.

If you see a big drop-off coming, you can trade up to land the last player in a tier. Or if several players you value equally are still sitting there, you can trade down to the end of that tier, pick up an extra asset, and still get “your guy.”

Example: If you have the first overall pick but genuinely can’t decide between Ja’Marr Chase, Saquon Barkley, and Bijan Robinson, and you’d be happy with any of them, let someone else decide for you. Trade back to 1.03, get one of those three studs, and pick up an extra asset in the process.

Why Tiers Win Drafts

Rankings tell you who’s better on paper. Tiers tell you when the cliff drops off.

They stop you from chasing positional runs, they keep you from overpaying, and they give you the confidence to let a player go when you know equal value is still there.

In short, they let you run the draft instead of letting the draft run you.